With a development in North Wilkesboro that is scheduled to open in the early months of 2009, comes a huge change for tennis players in Wilkes and surrounding counties.

Sky Carolina, a 515-acre community being created off of Vannoy Road in North Wilkesboro, features a state-of-the-art Tim Wilkison Signature Tennis Club.

Tim Wilkison is a Shelby, NC native, and currently resides in Charlotte but rose to fame in the 1977 U.S. Junior Tennis Championships. Wilkison won the 1977 U.S. Junior Tennis Championships, and never left the spotlight afterwards. Beginning in 1976, Wilkison began playing on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour, and has won six singles titles, and nine doubles titles in fifteen years. He currently serves as tennis director of the Tim Wilkison Signature Sports Complex at The Palisades, a member of the Senior Pro Tour, and Chairman of the USTA Nminating Committee. Wilkison has been ranked in the top-20 players in the Pro Tour.

The 515-acre community will feature a total of twelve tennis courts that will be built into the landscapes, which will allow an assortment of views and experiences for the players. Possibly plans for the courts may include, being nestled into the mountainside, on the top of a cliff with a view that ranges for miles, at the edges of a pond, or even at the base of a waterfall with a stream running under the court.

Playing surfaces will vary too. Both grass and hard courts are planned for the tennis club, and the center court will have a clay surface.

For the months of the year that outdoor tennis play is hard to manage due to the cold and frigid temperatures of the winter months, Sky Carolina will offer a opportunity to play tennis year round. With eleven outdoor courts possible for play, there is also an indoor court that allows play at any time of the year.

According to Sky Carolina’s design plan, the tennis facility will engage your body and mind, combining Tim Wilkinson’s passion for tennis with the vision of founder Bo Quickel.

Along with a state-of-the-art tennis complex, Sky Carolina is also going to possess a yoga center that brings the outside indoors.

The yoga center is built at the highest elevation of the tennis complex and an exotic design features three glass walls that open up to invite nature inside. The setting enhances the relaxation with a 20-mile view across the valley and over the tennis complex.

Sky Carolina will feature 172-single-family residences, and 50 lake cottages over the 515-acre community. It embodies balance, order, and scale, embraced by tennis but goes beyond tennis also.

A feature of Sky Carolina is what Bo Quickel, the president of Wild Hare Development, excitedly described as